By Jason Linkins on 29 December 2010 for Huffington Post -
(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/29/neil-abercrombies-should-_n_802294.html)
Image above: Orly Taitze staged Birther demonstration in New York against Fox News. From (http://gawker.com/5402300/fox-news-is-ready-for-your-protest).
Newly elected Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie has decided that he will be the guy to finally settle the whole "birther" conspiracy, a matter that was settled in sane circles before it even began. Slate's Dave Weigel, who has written more substantively about the birthers than anyone else I could name, gets right to the heart of why this is a mistake:
The "birther" movement began not because Barack Obama's campaign refused to show proof of his citizenship, but because it did show proof. In June 2008, it responded to some rumors about whether Obama was born a Muslim or had different parents than had been reported by releasing the short-form certificate, the sort of form you get if you lose your driver's license and need to prove your identity to the DMV to get a new license. This launched a cottage industry of hilarious "document analysis" attempting to prove that the certificate was forged by the Obama campaign. And this is exactly what would happen again if the governor of Hawaii, who knew the Obama family in the 1960s, let reporters photograph more of Obama's documents. The birther crowd would cry "forgery," as the Kennedy assassination and moon landing hoax crowds look for anything that could unravel the official story in every new official analysis.Exactly. The flaw in Abercrombie's thinking is that he believes this is a matter that can be laid to rest. But the birthers already believe in an ornate conspiracy, spanning many generations of bipartisan officials on the local, state, and federal level, to conceal the heritage of a biracial child in order to install him in the White House for ... well, for kicks, I guess! Given that they already successfully contain all that derangement inside their cranial cavities, there's really no big reveal Abercrombie can offer that won't simply be seamlessly incorporated as component of this bonkers theory.
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Every time this matter comes up, it reminds me of a sketch from Dave Chappelle's eponymous Comedy Central show, in which the comedian imagines himself to be participating in the jury selection of the R. Kelly child pornography lawsuit:
PROSECUTOR: So, beside the tape and the girl corroborating the allegations, what more would it take for you to believe he's guilty?In the real world, a prosecutor would simply choose not to engage with someone with such obviously nonsensical beliefs. This is something that the White House already understands: you do not stoop to engaging crazy people who are of no consequence and do nothing but whine and ask for handouts that cater to their dementia.
CHAPPELLE: All right. If I saw a tape of R. Kelly peeing on a girl, while he was singing "Piss On You," and the girl was holding two forms of government ID, while a police officer was there, like -- with four or five of my buddies and Neil taking notes ...
PROSECUTOR: Wow --
CHAPPELLE: I'm not finished! And his grandmother has to be there, to confirm his identity.
PROSECUTOR: Mr. Chappelle, isn't that excessive?
CHAPPELLE: No! No it's not excessive! Listen, lady, the burden of proof is on the state. The state! YOU have got to prove TO ME, beyond a reasonable doubt whether or not this man is a pisser.
PROSECUTOR: Aren't your doubts unreasonable?
CHAPPELLE: No! It's not unreasonable!
Neil Abercrombie means well, I take him at his word that he's animated by the way these nutters have insulted the memory of Obama's parents, but this is, ultimately, a fool's errand -- not an important matter for the state of Hawaii. See also: Ea O Ka Aina: Aberchrombie Takes on the Birthers 12/24/10
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3 comments :
Alright, Neil, let's see the long form birth certificate with the foot prints and doctor's signature.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMD3o_9F7og&feature=player_embedded
BTW, I believe it is spelled Abercrombie.
DOH Watcher
"New Hawaii governor: We’re going to put a stop to this Birther crap once and for all"
POSTED ON DECEMBER 27, 2010 BY ALLAHPUNDIT
Exceptionally stupid. Although, if he’s intent on digging up background on The One, I wouldn’t mind seeing what he comes up with by way of transcripts from Columbia.
“It’s an insult to his mother and to his father, and I knew his mother and father; they were my friends, and I have an emotional interest in that,” Governor Abercrombie said in a telephone interview late Thursday. “It’s an emotional insult. It is disrespectful to the president; it is disrespectful to the office.”
The governor, a Democrat and former congressman, said he has initiated conversations with the state’s attorney general and the chief of its Health Department about how he can release more explicit documentation of Mr. Obama’s birth on Aug. 4, 1961, at Kapiolani Maternity and Gynecological Hospital. He said he has done so of his own accord, without consulting the White House, which declined to comment…
Mr. Abercrombie, 72, said that although he did not see the elder Obamas at the hospital with their newborn son, he did remember the couple bringing the baby to social events. He says the critics who suggest that Mr. Obama’s mother slipped off to Kenya to give birth are engaging in a “demonological fantasy.” And he is angry about legislation in several states that would require presidential candidates to document that they were born in this country. A similar bill died in Congress last year.
First, and apropos of nothing, my mind is blown by the fact that the governor of Hawaii remembers the president of the United States as an infant. But never mind that. Why is this tool dredging up an issue that, mercifully, had begun to go away? Hawaii’s records department received only 16 requests for Obama’s birth certificate in November, down from 50 or so a month last year. Higher courts have waved away multiple Birther petitions, and the court-martial of Lt. Col. Terry Lakin ended with him pleading guilty to failing to report for duty. This subject has no traction, in other words, either legally or in mainstream media, and thus had probably never been fringier when Abercrombie spoke up and decided to treat it as a problem that needs solving. Even his personal testimony about having seen Obama as a baby in Hawaii won’t count for anything among true believers, since he admits that he wasn’t at the hospital for the delivery — which is too bad, since it would have been fun to watch them come up with theories to explain even that inconvenient fact away.
This guy’s now placed himself in the following position. Either he inadvertently revives the Birther movement by crusading for a new law to make long-form birth certificates public without the approval of the individuals to whom they belong or he decides nothing can be done legally and backs off, which will itself inflame Birthers by inspiring dark theories about pressure on him from the White House to quiet down. And of course, since Abercrombie’s a liberal Democrat, if he does somehow manage to produce the long-form certificate and it confirms that Obama’s birth happened as alleged, skeptics will dismiss it as a forgery planted by an ideological ally to throw Birthers off the scent of the “real” birth certificate. He can’t win here. Why would he even try?
Hawaiian Birther
http://hotair.com/archives/2010/12/27/new-hawaii-governor-were-going-to-put-a-stop-to-this-birther-crap-once-and-for-all/
"New Hawaii governor: We’re going to put a stop to this Birther crap once and for all"
POSTED ON DECEMBER 27, 2010 BY ALLAHPUNDIT
Exceptionally stupid. Although, if he’s intent on digging up background on The One, I wouldn’t mind seeing what he comes up with by way of transcripts from Columbia...
Mr. Abercrombie, 72, said that although he did not see the elder Obamas at the hospital with their newborn son, he did remember the couple bringing the baby to social events. He says the critics who suggest that Mr. Obama’s mother slipped off to Kenya to give birth are engaging in a “demonological fantasy.” And he is angry about legislation in several states that would require presidential candidates to document that they were born in this country. A similar bill died in Congress last year.
First, and apropos of nothing, my mind is blown by the fact that the governor of Hawaii remembers the president of the United States as an infant. But never mind that. Why is this tool dredging up an issue that, mercifully, had begun to go away? Hawaii’s records department received only 16 requests for Obama’s birth certificate in November, down from 50 or so a month last year. Higher courts have waved away multiple Birther petitions, and the court-martial of Lt. Col. Terry Lakin ended with him pleading guilty to failing to report for duty. This subject has no traction, in other words, either legally or in mainstream media, and thus had probably never been fringier when Abercrombie spoke up and decided to treat it as a problem that needs solving. Even his personal testimony about having seen Obama as a baby in Hawaii won’t count for anything among true believers, since he admits that he wasn’t at the hospital for the delivery — which is too bad, since it would have been fun to watch them come up with theories to explain even that inconvenient fact away.
This guy’s now placed himself in the following position. Either he inadvertently revives the Birther movement by crusading for a new law to make long-form birth certificates public without the approval of the individuals to whom they belong or he decides nothing can be done legally and backs off, which will itself inflame Birthers by inspiring dark theories about pressure on him from the White House to quiet down. And of course, since Abercrombie’s a liberal Democrat, if he does somehow manage to produce the long-form certificate and it confirms that Obama’s birth happened as alleged, skeptics will dismiss it as a forgery planted by an ideological ally to throw Birthers off the scent of the “real” birth certificate. He can’t win here. Why would he even try?
Hawaiian Birther
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